June Morning in Saint-Mammès

In the 1880s, Sisley shifted his base to the area along the Loing River, a tributary of the Seine, southeast of Paris. Saint-Mammès is a quiet village at the junction of the Loing and the Seine. The river on the left side of this painting is the Seine. The row of poplars is on its left bank. On the right bank (on the left, in the painting) is the hill on which the village of La Celle is located. There is a bridge over the river, upstream (to the upper right), but it is not included in this painting. Sisley has rendered the leaves of the poplar trees individually, as though to express the effects of light and shadow. The blue shadows of the buildings fall boldly across the road on the embankment. The row of poplars on its left and the buildings on the right converge in the right rear of this painting, in a composition that Sisley was fond of using. This tranquil scene communicates the invigorating briskness of a June morning.